Your Opportunity as Lead Engineer, IS Network Services
The Lead Network Engineer is responsible for the design, implementation, operation, and continuous improvement of enterprise network services that support The J.M. Smucker Company’s business operations. This role serves as a technical leader within IS Infrastructure, providing hands-on engineering, architectural direction, and operational oversight across campus, data center, cloud, and manufacturing/operations technology (OT) connected networks. The Lead Network Engineer acts as an escalation point for complex network issues, drives standards and best practices, and partners closely with security, compute, application, and OT teams.
Location: Orrville, OH (Close proximity to Cleveland/Akron)
Work Arrangements: Hybrid - onsite a minimum of 9 days a month primarily during core weeks as determined by the Company; maybe more as business need requires.
In this role you will:
Provide technical leadership for enterprise network services, including LAN, WAN, SD-WAN, wireless, internet edge, and data center connectivity.
Design, implement, and support highly available, resilient network architectures aligned to business, security, and manufacturing requirements.
Serve as a senior escalation point for complex network incidents, outages, and performance issues; lead root cause analysis and corrective actions.
Lead lifecycle management for network infrastructure, including hardware refreshes, software upgrades, and decommissioning of legacy platforms.
Partner with IS Security to design, integrate, and enforce network security controls—including OT/IT segmentation, firewall policy, secure remote access, and zero trust principles—to reduce risk across corporate and manufacturing environments.
Design, implement, and support modern data center fabrics and overlays (e.g., EVPN/VXLAN) to enable scalable, multi-tenant connectivity.
Collaborate with cloud and infrastructure teams on hybrid connectivity patterns supporting SaaS and cloud platforms (e.g., Azure, AWS, Oracle Cloud).
Administer and troubleshoot network load balancing services (e.g., F5 BIG-IP LTM) to support high availability and application delivery.
Partner with security teams to implement and operate network access control (NAC) and/or micro-segmentation platforms (e.g., Illumio) to enforce policy and reduce lateral movement risk.
Develop and maintain network documentation, diagrams, runbooks, and operational procedures.
Drive automation and standardization using modern tooling and scripting where appropriate.
Participate in disaster recovery and business continuity planning, testing, and execution.
The Right Place for You
We are bold, kind, strive to do the right thing, we play to win, and we believe in a strong community that thrives together. Our culture is rooted in our Basic Beliefs, and we believe in supporting every employee by meeting their physical, emotional, and financial needs.
What we are looking for:
Minimum Requirements
7+ years of experience in enterprise network engineering roles
Strong hands-on experience designing and supporting complex enterprise networks
Experience operating SD-WAN, firewalls, and large-scale routed and switched environments
Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot complex, multi-domain network issues
Proficiency with network operating systems and CLI troubleshooting (e.g., Cisco IOS/NX-OS and Juniper Junos)
Strong documentation, communication, and collaboration skills
Ability to participate in on-call rotational schedule (after hours support)
Additional Skills and experience that we think would make someone successful in this role (not required):
Experience with network automation, scripting, or infrastructure-as-code concepts
Experience with cloud networking in AWS, Oracle & Microsoft
Experience with data center switching and overlay technologies (e.g., EVPN/VXLAN) and associated operational troubleshooting
Experience with application delivery controllers / load balancers (e.g., F5 BIG-IP LTM), including VIPs, pools, health monitors, and SSL/TLS concepts
Familiarity with NAC and/or micro-segmentation solutions (e.g., Illumio) and how they integrate with network security controls.
Experience in manufacturing or OT-connected environments
Familiarity with zero trust networking concepts and modern security architectures
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Top Skills
What We Do
Each generation of consumers leaves their mark on culture by establishing new expectations for food and the companies that make it. At The J.M. Smucker Co., it is our privilege to be at the heart of this dynamic with a portfolio that appeals to each generation of people and pets with products found in 90 percent of U.S. homes and countless restaurants. This includes a mix of iconic brands consumers have always loved such as Folgers®, Jif® and Milk-Bone® and new favorites like Café Bustelo®, Smucker’s® Uncrustables® and Rachael Ray® Nutrish®. By continuing to immerse ourselves in consumer and pet parent preferences for food, how it’s purchased and how the companies that make it should operate, we will maintain the important role we play in their lives. This will allow us to continue growing our business and the positive impact we have on all of those who count on us.
